Keep on praying

Do you ever feel like time flies? In many respects it seems that way to me…especially birthdays! How can a whole year pass so rapidly? I suspect that our reluctance to look forward to birthdays in our later years is the awareness of additional physical challenges that are likely to appear and new limitations we have experienced over the past year. The flip side of that is knowing that we are a year closer to stepping through that curtain of death into the presence of our God and Father who has loved us since before we were born.

I was tremendously blessed by the cards, emails, phone calls and greetings throughout the day along with a wonderful lunch with dear friends. The celebration did not end that day but continued with a delicious dinner and an evening of games with a group of friends the following day, topped off with a cake blazing with enough candles to set the city on fire. A reminder that I am in that classification of, older than dirt! The following evening I enjoyed another dinner with dear friends at a restaurant. Birthdays aren’t all that bad after all!

In our God Chasers class, we are beginning an intensive study on prayer using the new book by Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life. Teacher Tom describes it as not about techniques, not about placing guilt, but “…one of the most natural, refreshing, and freeing discussions on prayer I’ve encountered in many years.” I am excited about the study and the focus upon knowing God better through personal conversations with Him.

As I was preparing for the class Sunday, I was scanning the concordance to refresh my mind about various Scriptures about prayer. The one that literally jumped off the page for me was 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; “Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” It struck me that as this was part of Paul’s final advice to the Thessalonians in his letter, it was also a vivid description of Carol’s life. Even when faced with cancer consuming her body and drugs that had many nasty side effects, even in her last hours, she glowed with her usual joy and continued to be thankful for her family, friends and the God that she looked forward to seeing. An example for each of us! Some of her last words to me were; “Chuck, take care of yourself, the family and many friends still need prayer.”

Lord, during the coming weeks of this study, help me to learn to communicate with you in an intimate and fresh way that will allow me to better know you and your will.

Love to you all,

Chuck